North Carolina to Be First to Compensate Forced Sterilization Victims

North Carolina is one of *many* states that for decades forcibly sterilized people it considered “undesirable,” without their consent and sometimes even without their knowledge.

It sounds like a horrifying practice that must have been a long time ago, but there are people still alive who were violated in this way.

Now, North Carolina is set to become the first state to compensate victims, setting aside $10 million to pay off about 1,500 people estimated to still be alive (the practice supposedly stopped in 1974). They estimate something like 7,600 people were forcibly sterilized on that state.

They sure didn’t hurry, though. Most states seem to be simply avoiding this gross violation of human rights and dignity until everyone they victimized dies off and can’t complain. And hey, the state effectively limited their having m/any children who could take up their cause afterward.

Dear More Than Half the States Remaining – step up. Do it now.

Sunday News Round-Up, Stay in the Air Conditioning Edition

Some of my recent posts over at Our Bodies Our Blog, the blog of Our Bodies Ourselves. There are links to lots of stories of interest on OBOS’s on Twitter and Facebook accounts as well.:

• Women Make Movies: New Releases Include Films on Virginity, Women in Prison and Body Image


• State by State: Laws Restricting Abortion and Family Planning as of Mid-2013


• CIR Prison Investigation Opens Another Chapter on Sterilization of Women in U.S.


• Keeping Up With Anti-Abortion Attacks in the States


• Ask the FDA to Approve *All* Emergency Contraception Pills for OTC Access

And some guest blogger posts at OBOS:

• Lessons Learned: Why Midwives Should Matter to Everyone


• Egg Donation is Made to Look Easy, but Questions and Health Risks Remain


• Emergency Contraception Can Be Free, But it Takes Planning – And a Prescription

Also of interest:

• Forced Sterilizations and the Future of the Women’s Movement – Salamishah Tillet at The Nation. “the victims of forced sterilization as integral to the future of the women’s movement as the fight over choice” – because when *to* have a child, and having control over that yourself, *is* a matter of choice.


• In the New York Times: American Way of Birth, Costliest in the World. Honestly, when you figure that the majority of women who have abortions are *already* mothers, healthcare costs are something anti-abortion “pro-life” folks should really look at.


• Tampons as a feminist issue, via GenderFocus. And not just in a “confiscated by the government from women trying to exercise their civic duty” sort of way. Honestly, tampons lack sufficient mass to be good thrown weapons, Texas.


• Found via Racialicious, to read up on later: Harvard and Slavery: Seeking a Forgotten History


• At Shakesville, Calling all Pro-Choice Men. “Make as much noise, MAKE MORE NOISE, than anti-choice men!” Do it. Now.


• The Nerdy Feminist talks intersectionalism in feminist/pro-choice communities, from the vantage point of the Texas rallies.


• Because positive stereotypes are bullshit, too. Like when anyone responds to my mixed heritage with statements like, “mutts are the smartest dogs.” Dueling Stereotypes: Bad Asian Drivers, Good At Everything.

A reminder: I’m playing around with a tumblr companion to this blog. I’ll link things there that don’t quite fit here or that I don’t have time to really write up separately, like quick news things, or this cool resource from the Wisconsin Historical Society – an online collection of photos and documents from Freedom Summer. I’m still messing around with the template – I don’t like how the current one deals with link posts.

On a medical librarian note, I volunteered to moderate last Thursday’s #medlibs chat on Twitter. Here’s the archive! Contact @eagledawg if you’d like to volunteer for a specific week.

And a final reminder, to the medical librarians among the audience. I’ve started investigating and applying to positions at the assistant/associate director level in medical libraries. If you know of something I should keep an eye out for, I’d really appreciate hearing about it!

Unrelated to anything, but cool: Animal Rescue: Caring for Animals During Emergencies

And, to end things on a bit of silliness: True Blood Sims is one of my favorite tumblrs, and makes me giggle on a regular basis. If you’re a fan of True Blood *or* the Southern Vampire Mysteries books (or if you have a love/hate relationship with either…), you will like it.

While you’re at it, Birthing Beautiful Ideas is blogging a Pie a Week. Dean Winchester fans, take note.

Filed under: Abortion, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Contraception, Drugs, Ethics, Government, Laws, Legislation, & Courts, Menstruation, Midwifery, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups, Pregnancy, Women's Health  

#medlibs Chat Tonight on Staff Training and Professional Development

I’m moderating the weekly #medlibs chat tonight on Twitter. Our topic this week is staff training and professional development.

I’ve posted some potential questions for discussion here. I’ll use these as prompts as needed, but discussion will be informal and participants can feel free to raise other related issues on the theme.

See you at 8:00 pm Central time, tag your posts #medlibs.

Update: Here’s the transcript. There are some excellent reminders in there from participants about low cost learning resources. Thanks to everyone who participated!